Before the Rain Falls: A Novel

After serving seventy years in prison for the murder of her sister, Eula, Della Lee has finally returned home to the Texas town of Puerto Pesar. She's free from confinement - and ready to tell her secrets before it's too late. She finds a willing audience in journalist Mick Anders, who is reeling after his suspension from a Boston newspaper and in town, reluctantly, to investigate a mysterious portrait of Eula that reportedly sheds tears.

The Whiskey Sea

Motherless and destitute, Frieda Hope grows up during Prohibition determined to make a better life for herself and her sister, Bea. The girls are taken in by a kindly fisherman named Silver, and Frieda begins to feel at home whenever she is on the water. When Silver sells his fishing boat to WWI veteran Sam Hicks, thinking Sam would be a fine husband for Frieda, she's outraged. But Frieda manages to talk Sam into teaching her to repair boat engines instead, so she has a trade of her own and won't have to marry.

Saving Abby

All children's book illustrator Claire Turner ever wanted was to be a mother. After six years of trying to conceive, she and her husband, Josh, have finally accepted that she will never be pregnant with a child of their own. Yet once they give up hope, the couple gets the miracle they've been waiting for. For the first few months of her pregnancy, Claire and Josh are living on cloud nine. But when she begins to experience debilitating headaches, blurred vision, and even fainting spells, the soon-to-be mother goes to the doctor and receives a terrifying diagnosis.

The Lilac Bouquet

Come hell or high water, Emmy Jo Massey
will have a wedding. After three generations of Massey women with children out of wedlock, she wants the whole town of Hickory, Texas, to witness the legitimacy of her union with Logan Grady. But dream weddings aren't cheap. So she accepts a highly lucrative stint as a home health assistant to retired realtor, and town recluse, Seth Thomas - a decision her great-grandmother Tandy is dead-set against.

Berlin Calling

Germany 1938. While young and old are captivated by the country's rapid ascent under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, naive Maggie O'Dea, an American studying abroad, finds her own fortunes turning after falling in love with a handsome soldier and landing a job with the Propaganda Ministry. Embodying the infectious spirit of nationalism sweeping the country, her powerful dispatches launch her broadcasting career as a champion of the Fatherland.

The Buttonmaker's Daughter

May 1914. Nestled in Sussex, the Summerhayes mansion seems the perfect country idyll. But a long-running feud between the Summers and their neighbour, Lady Summer's brother, threatens the calm. And with tensions in Europe deepening, it seems that Summerhayes' peaceful days are numbered. For Elizabeth Summer, the lazy quiet of her home has become stifling. A chance meeting with Aiden Kellaway, an architect's assistant, offers the promise of escape.

Desert Flowers

Rose and Elmer have created an idyllic sanctuary for themselves and their five daughters in Mexico's Baja California desert. Out there in the middle of nowhere, blissfully cut off from the burdens of modern society, they're free to raise their beautiful family...and preserve its secret.

Wives of War

London, 1944. Two young nurses meet at a train station with a common purpose: to join the war effort. Scarlet longs for the chance to find her missing fiancé, Thomas, and to prove to her family - and to herself - that she's stronger than everybody thinks. Nursing is in Ellie's blood, but her humble background is vastly different from Scarlet's privileged upbringing. Though Ellie puts on a brave face, she's just as nervous as Scarlet about what awaits them in France.

Ashes of Life

Married for just three months, Alex Barrett is stunned when her husband, David, dies in a tragic accident. And the absolute last thing the pregnant young widow wants is to take on responsibility for his teenage daughter, Maddie. Reeling from loss, Alex struggles to deal with her grief and her troubled stepdaughter, but one question haunts her: why was David with his ex-wife when he died?

From Sand and Ash

As children, Eva Rosselli and Angelo Bianco were raised like family but divided by circumstance and religion. As the years go by, the two find themselves falling in love. But the church calls to Angelo and, despite his deep feelings for Eva, he chooses the priesthood. Now, more than a decade later, Angelo is a Catholic priest and Eva is a woman with nowhere to turn. With the Gestapo closing in, Angelo hides Eva within the walls of a convent.

Painting the Moon: Chilton Crosse, Book 1

When Noelle Cooke inherits a quaint English cottage and an art gallery from her famous Aunt Joy, she welcomes a departure from her San Diego routine. But the lure of the Cotswolds, combined with a locked cottage room and a revealing journal, entice her to stay and discover more, including a way to save the gallery from financial ruin. And that means remaining in England.

The Hourglass

It's 2014. Sensible Nora has always taken success for granted until suddenly her life begins to fall apart. Troubled by anxiety and nightmares, she finds herself drawn to the sweeping beaches of Tenby, a place she's been only once before. Together with a local girl, she rents a beautiful townhouse and slowly begins to settle in to her new life. But Tenby hides a secret, and Nora will soon discover that this little town by the sea has the power to heal even the most painful memories.

The Summer House Party

Dan Ranscombe is clever and good-looking, but he resents the wealth and easy savoir faire of fellow guest Paul Latimer. Surely a shrewd girl like Meg Slater would see through that, wouldn't she? And what about Diana, Paul's beautiful sister; Charles Asher, the Jewish outsider; Madeleine, the children's nanny; and artist Henry Haddon? As these guests gather at a country house party, none has any inkling that the choices they make will have fateful consequences lasting through the war and beyond.

Wish Me Home

A hungry, stray dog is the last thing Cara Butter needs. Stranded in Georgia with only her backpack and a few dwindling dollars, she already has too much baggage. Like her twin sister, Hana, who has broken Cara's heart one too many times. After a lifetime of family troubles, and bouncing from one foster home to another, Cara decides to leave it all behind and strike out alone - on foot.

Everything We Keep: A Novel

Sous chef Aimee Tierney has the perfect recipe for the perfect life: marry her childhood sweetheart, raise a family, and buy out her parents' restaurant. But when her fiancé, James Donato, vanishes in a boating accident, her well-baked future is swept out to sea. Instead of walking down the aisle on their wedding day, Aimee is at James's funeral - a funeral that leaves her more unsettled than at peace.

Surviving the Fatherland: A True Coming of Age Love Story Set in WWII Germany

Spanning 13 years from 1940 to 1953 and set against the epic panorama of WWII, author Annette Oppenlander's
Surviving the Fatherland is a sweeping saga of family, love, and betrayal that illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the children's war.

The Other Side of the Sun: A Novel

When nineteen-year-old Stella marries Theron Renier, she has no idea what kind of clan she's joined. Soon after their arrival at Illyria, the Reniers' rambling beachside home, Theron is sent on a diplomatic mission, leaving Stella alone with his family. As she tries to settle into her new life, Stella quickly discovers that the Reniers are not what they seem. Trapped in a world unlike anything she's ever known, vulnerable Stella attempts to uncover her new family's dangerous secrets—and stirs up a darkness that was meant to stay buried.

The Secret of Summerhayes

Summer 1944: Bombed out by the Blitz, Bethany Merston takes up a post as companion to elderly Alice Summer, last remaining inhabitant of the dilapidated and crumbling Summerhayes estate. Now a shadow of its former glory, most of the rooms have been shut up, the garden is overgrown and the whole place feels as unwelcoming as the family themselves. Struggling with the realities of war, Alice is plagued by anonymous letters and haunting visions of her old household.

Magnolia Nights

Ellie Pringle has spent endless hours and countless dollars working with a therapist to remember the lost years of her childhood. She's baffled and more than a little intrigued when the grandmother she hasn't seen in 34 years dies and leaves her a fortune. The time has come to face her past in person. Still reeling from a recent breakup of a long-term relationship, and with nothing to keep her in San Francisco, Ellie packs her meager belongings and boards a plane for the South Carolina Lowcountry.

My Mother's Shadow

It is 1958. Elizabeth has been sent away from her London home to the beautiful Hartland House in Sussex. Over an idyllic summer by the coast, she grows close to the confident young Shaws, who treat her like one of their own. A lovely but innocent girl, Elizabeth is ready to fall in love - but her dreams are dangerously naïve. Decades later Elizabeth's daughter, Addie, is stunned when a stranger appears on her doorstep, claiming that they are sisters. Addie doesn't believe it until her beloved father admits that everything she's been told about her early life is a lie.

The Waterway Girls

October 1943. Nineteen-year-old Polly Holmes is leaving poor bombed London behind to join the war effort on Britain's canals. Stepping aboard the Marigold amid pouring rain, there's lots for Polly to get to grips with. Not least her fellow crew: strong and impetuous Verity, whose bark is worse than her bite, and seasoned skipper Bet. With her sweetheart away fighting in the RAF and her beloved brother killed in action, there's plenty of heartache to be healed on the waterway.

Nobody's Girl

The boom years immediately after the Great War bring nothing but happiness for wealthy industrialist Wigmore Stratfield-Whyte and his wife Clarissa, until tragedy robs them of their greatest treasure. Many years later, a horrific fatal accident brings young Meg Chandler, a spirited farmer's daughter, into their lives. Meg wants nothing to do with them, but Clarissa is drawn irresistibly towards the bereaved girl and will move heaven and earth to help her.

The Married Girls

The war is over, but trouble is brewing.... Wynsdown, 1949. In the small Somerset village of Wynsdown, Charlotte Shepherd is happily married and now feels settled in her adopted home after arriving from Germany on the Kindertransport as a child during the war. Meanwhile, the squire's fighter pilot son, Felix, has returned to the village with a fiancée in tow. Daphne is beautiful, charming...and harbouring secrets. After meeting during the war, Felix knows some of Daphne's past....

Beneath a Burning Sky

When 22-year-old Olivia is coerced into marriage by the cruel Alistair Sheldon, she leaves England for Egypt, his home and the land of her own childhood. Reluctant as she is to go with Alistair, it's in her new home that she finds happiness in surprising places: she is reunited with her long-estranged sister, Clara, and falls - impossibly and illicitly - in love with her husband's boarder, Captain Edward Bertram. Then Clara is abducted from one of the busiest streets in the city.

Publisher's Summary

Julianne Westcott was living the kind of life that other Protestant girls in prewar Liverpool could only dream about: old money, silk ball gowns, and prominent young men lining up to escort her. But when she learns of a blind-and-deaf brother, institutionalized since birth, the illusion of her perfect life and family shatters around her.

While visiting her brother in secret, Julianne meets and befriends Kyle McCarthy, an Irish Catholic groundskeeper studying to become a priest. Caught between her family's expectations, Kyle's devotion to the Church, and the intense new feelings that the forbidden courtship has awakened in her, Julianne must make a choice: uphold the life she's always known or follow the difficult path toward love.

But as war ripples through the world and the Blitz decimates England, a tragic accident forces Julianne to leave everything behind and forge a new life built on lies she's told to protect the ones she loves. Now, after 20 years of hiding from her past, the truth finds her - will she be brave enough to face it?

I didn't want to put this book down. One I will fondly remember and reread!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Jennifer M. Shuman

Redondo Beach, CA

13/07/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Amazing emotional love story"

I experiences so many emotions listening to Thu book. I woke up feeling emotionally wrecked. incredible! Fiona Hardingham is becoming my favorite narrator.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Amazon Customer

Rochester NY

28/03/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Loved this Story!"

I loved this story. It has everything g a good love story needs. Fate, ambition, persistence and undeniable love! Kyle is every woman's dream minus the priesthood! I liked that it ended with her at the confessional and reuniting. Great job on the accents and characters...I saw them in my minds eye!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

krystalyn

08/02/18

Overall

Performance

Story

"absolutely amazing!"

the story is timeless and it is written perfectly! I have read it once and listened to it on audible twice. the story is so enduring and the reader can fell every emotion through out the book. I've recommended this book to several people and 3 of them have read it and loved it! the story follows a young woman who falls hopelessly in love and her journey through life after war. I can give any details without ruining it for you! if you are reading this review- trust me, you will love this book!!!!

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

CaliReader

07/01/18

Overall

Performance

Story

"Joy, Sorrow and Love- A must read!"

I feel compelled to leave a review. There are only a handful of books that have truly scorched my soul and this is one of them. Absolutely beautifully written so that the reader can smell, see, and feel what the characters are experiencing. A time before mine and a religion that I’ve never experienced and yet I was there. Flawed and yet courageous characters, a love story, a bittersweet plot. So much like life that it hurts and heals and deeply resonates. Thank you Author for this story. And thank you Narrator for switching seemlessly between accents and for feeling each word.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Reader Lady

Tennessee

23/11/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"My Musings"

At least one time a year, I will read a book that touches me to my very soul. The Memory of Us did that. Early on in the book, I almost quit reading because I found Judith a bit frivolous, but the plot continued to keep me engaged. I'm so thankful I kept reading/listening!

The love story between the hero and heroine is emotionally-charged while incredibly sad. Poor Judith just couldn't believe anyone could love her despite her problems. I don't want to give any of the plot away, but I encourage to embrace this marvelous book.

Please read this amazing book. If no other reason then that it is a fantastic depiction of the hardship and trials people faced during that horrific war, but I'm sure you will appreciate the great love between the couple. I rarely cry when reading a book, but this one definitely brought tears to my eyes. This is the best book I've read in 2017. It will definitely remain on my keeper shelf. Happy reading!

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Harper

13/11/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Beautiful and Romantic"

I loved this book. I was riveted from the beginning to the very end. Beautiful story, very romantic.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Sharon

Auckland, New Zealand

30/10/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Unexpected pleasure"

What I really liked about this book was that it was unexpected in its characterization, in the development of the story and I really enjoyed the 'voices' of the different characters. I had Neiva head of this sofa before but will definitely look for more of his books. I'll also look for more books near rated by Fiona hadn't him

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Natalie Bezuhov

20/10/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Beautiful, Moving Love Story"

Beautiful, deeply moving love story. The narration was perfection. Be prepared to have a full box of Kleenex at the ready. Highly recommended!

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Robyn

03/10/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"A Beautiful Memory of Us"

Romantic love as well as for family, friends and others. Excellent narration and surprising story with moving and delightful turns.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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